President Goodluck Jonathan in the twilight of his reign has demonstrated a poor knowledge and understanding of simple facts and history.

At a church service yesterday in Abuja, Jonathan second guessed the plans of his successor, Muhammadu Buhari to make his administration accountable, by interpreting such a measure as ‘persecution’.

He said he and his ministers will be persecuted by Buhari because of the hard decisions he claimed to have made.

“I believe there are reasons for everything. Some hard decisions have their own cost; and there is no doubt about that.

“That I have run the government this way that stabilised certain things, the electoral process and other things that brought stability to this country. They are very costly decisions which I must be ready to pay for.

“Some people come to me and say this or that person, is he not your friend that benefitted? Is it not your government that this person benefitted from? But this is what the person is saying.

“But I used to say that worse statements will come. If you take certain decisions, you should know that those close to you will even abandon you at some point.

“And I tell them that more of my so-called friends will disappear. When de Klerk took the decision to abolish minority rule in South Africa, even his wife divorced him. I hope my wife will not divorce me. But that is the only decision that has made South Africa to be a global player now. If they still   have minority rule,   by this time, nobody will be talking about them.

“If you take certain decisions, it might be good for many but it might affect others differently. So, for ministers and   aides who served with me, I sympathise with them because they will be persecuted. They must be ready for persecution.”

TheNEWS decided to do a simple fact check of the President’s reference to Frederick Wilhelm de Klerk ‘ s divorce from his wife, whether Marike, his wife of 38 years divorced him because he took a ‘hard’ decision like Jonathan and abolished apartheid.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the divorce that took place, in 1998, some 6 years after the ANC ban was lifted and four years after Mandela had become South Africa’s president:

“In 1998, de Klerk and his wife of 38 years, Marike de Klerk, were divorced following the discovery of his affair with Elita Georgiades,then the wife of Tony Georgiades, a Greek shipping tycoon who had allegedly given de Klerk and the NP financial support. Soon after his divorce, de Klerk and Georgiades were married. His divorce and remarriage scandalised conservative South African opinion, especially among the Calvinist Afrikaners. In 1999, his autobiography, The Last Trek – A New Beginning, was published. De Klerk successfully had a chapter from Marike’s biography, A Place Where the Sun Shines Again, dealing with his infidelity, censored.”

In another Wikipedia posting for Marike, it was revealed that FW de Klerk affair with Elita Georgiades began in 1994. FW and Marike’s marriage ended in 1998 with FW announcing on Valentine’s Day that he intended to divorce his wife of 38 years. Marike was opposed to the divorce:’If you change your mind, I’ll forgive everything – up to 70 times seven.’ However FW replied: ‘I’m certain about my decision. Stop hoping.’F. W. de Klerk married Georgiades a week after his divorce to Marike was official.